A Related Memory #2: Cabin Life

When Fru and I lived in the cabin in the Bitterroots, I forgot to mention the flies. And the bees. And the leaf bugs--or maybe they were stink bugs. The thing was, it was a new cabin with new logs and big windows and flies--especially flies--would gather in the sunlight in the big paned windows and they'd buzz and buzz and there'd also be bees and there'd be the leaf/stink bugs flying around. I mean, it was like an infestation, one controlled to mainly the windows. A few other people had had this problem, but most cabin dwellers seemed not to. They didn't know what I was talking about.But it was almost all regulated to the upstairs and their windows.

Our landlord--Phil, who had one arm and had lived in the Sandwich Islands and who had built the cabin--said it was natural and that the only thing made to get rid of them was a "spray" made from chrysanthemum leaves. It was a Japanese thing.

So, Fru and I made do with swatters and dealing with the bugs landing on us in bed and such. Then, we graduated to vacuuming the flies and bees and bugs out of the window about every other day, got to where we accepted the stink/leaf bugs flying into us at times. It was great fun. I even wrote a poem about it, about how the bugs and flies were condemned to the hell of the vacuum bag: Vacuuming Flies From My Cabin Window.

I think that's what it was titled.